I recently found the perfect bed frame at Ikea—or so I thought. I spotted it across the showroom floor: simple white, feminine shape, and Ikea-inexpensive. Then I came closer. The frame had massive carved tulips and hearts all over it! Shocked, slightly disgusted, and totally disappointed, we moved on to the next aisle. As Mike and I rounded the corner, I took one last look at the over-sized child's bed and noticed it was smooth on the back. Hmmmm. What if we could built it inside out? No one would have to see the pre-school graffiti and we’d have the simple bed I thought it was. It was a gamble but we bought it and started building.

This was the frame as Ikea intended, with tulips and hearts displayed in all their glory.

We assembled the frame so all the carvings face the mattress. We had to drill a few new holes to make this work, but it's nothing a bit of white paint can't fix.

The headboard looks completely smooth and the mattress is thick enough to cover the footboard design.

We pushed the bed against the wall and the tacky pattern is our little secret.